President Barack Obama has nominated New Orleans City Attorney Nanette Jolivette-Brown to an opening on the federal District Court in New Orleans.

The Times-PicayuneNanette Jolivette-Brown

Brown, who has been city attorney since May, was one of three women to be named to federal District Court openings Wednesday evening. The other two are in the Virgin Islands and in Maine.

"I am proud to nominate these three outstanding candidates to serve on the United States District Court bench," the president said. "They all have long and distinguished records of service, and I am confident they will serve on the federal bench with distinction."

Jolivette-Brown, who would be the first African-American woman to serve on the Eastern District bench, came highly touted by the senator's brother, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who named her to his Cabinet last spring.

"Nanette is and has been an essential member of our team and a true public servant in New Orleans," the New Orleans mayor said. "The depth of her legal background and experiences uniquely qualify her to serve in this federal judgeship."

Mary Landrieu said she could "think of no one more eminently qualified" to serve on the federal bench. "I am very pleased the president recognizes her legal talent and even temperament, qualities that will serve her well as a federal judge. I have every confidence that the Senate will vote to confirm her."

Indeed, Jolivette-Brown, with the enthusiastic backing of both Sens. Landrieu and David Vitter, R-La., should have little trouble gaining Senate confirmation.

"I look forward to supporting Nanette Jolivette Brown's quick Senate confirmation," Vitter said. "She is an experienced, real world practitioner with strong ties to the Louisiana legal community. Looking ahead to our Fifth Circuit vacancy, I will demand the same qualities in a nominee there."

If confirmed, Jolivette-Brown will replace U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval, who took senior status in December 2008.

Early in her career, she served in the administration of Mayor Marc Morial as the city's sanitation director, where she implemented New Orleans' first citywide recycling program.

She has worked as an environmental attorney and special partner with the Chaffe McCall law firm. She also has taught at three law schools: Tulane Law School, Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, and Loyola University New Orleans College of law. She is a graduate of Tulane Law School, and before that, of University of Southwestern Louisiana, now known as University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

In her November letter to the president recommending Jolivette-Brown, Mary Landrieu wrote that "Attorney Jolivette-Brown emerged from a very humble background to be one of only a very few African-Americans to hold leadership positions in the New Orleans Federal Bar Association."

Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law and close observer of the federal courts, said Jolivette-Brown appeared well-qualified, but that it is unlikely the Senate would be able to confirm her nomination before summer.

"There are so many ahead of her, and it moves so slowly," Tobias said.

There are three vacancies on the federal bench in New Orleans, a quarter of the full complement.

"That needs to be filled because that's a busy court," said Tobias.

Mary Landrieu submitted the names of three candidates in November after her first choice for the federal District Court, Civil Court Judge Michael Bagneris, was rejected by the White House without explanation. In addition to Jolivette-Brown, Landrieu recommended New Orleans trial attorney Stephen Herman and state Judge Jane Triche-Milazzo. Since November, two additional seats have opened with the removal from office of Judge Thomas Porteous and the announcement by Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon that she would take senior status.